Bordeaux Bashers Beware! There’s More Here Than $1,550 Bottles

Pierre and Patricia Bernault, owners of Chateau Beausejour in the Montagne-Saint-Emilion appellation in Bordeaux, at Restaurant Daniel in New York. They presented the 2007 vintage of their red merlot-cabernet franc blend, now imported to the U.S. The wines of this little-known appellation have the same elegance and structure as Saint-Emilion. Photographer: Elin McCoy/Bloomberg

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Like many young savvy sommeliers,
33-year-old Michael Madrigale of New York’s Bar Boulud, extols
obscure wines from the Jura, swoons over Burgundy and indulges
in Bordeaux bashing.

“All the high prices in Bordeaux have left a collective
bad taste in the mouth of everyone,” he said. His Bordeaux
customers “are people with gray hair.”

But is the world’s largest fine wine region really just a
no-soul place filled with insanely priced luxury products for
investment rather than drinking? Well, not exactly.

Admittedly, Bordeaux’s image is one of glamorous chateaux,
87 glitzy crus classes wines, and worldwide demand. First
growths now sell for thousands of dollars -- 2009 Lafite futures
cost $1,550 a bottle and you won’t get the wine until 2012. That
of course, is what has helped make the region a global success.

What everyone forgets is that Bordeaux has more than 8,500
estates, and some of them are tiny family-run properties that
make good cabernet and merlot blends for reasonable prices.

Though I never turn down a glass of Burgundy, I still love
the balance, structure and class of Bordeaux. These days that’s
not a politically correct stance in insider wine circles.
Everyone wants to be ahead of the next curve.

So I was intrigued when I heard that Burgundy fan Daniel
Johnnes, wine director for Daniel Boulud’s New York-based Dinex
group, was importing wines from 11 small Bordeaux estates this
autumn.

Nudist Colony

Johnnes, who got his start as a waiter in a nudist colony
in the Rhone valley, is widely known as the organizer of the
U.S.’s annual bacchanalian Burgundy event, La Paulee (The next
one is on Feb. 12 in New York). As an importer, he’s been
bringing in top wines from Burgundy, like Dominique Lafon’s cult
Meursaults, for 20 years.

“I’m not abandoning Burgundy, I’m not a traitor, but I got
tired of hearing Bordeaux trashed,” he said. “Following the
flock annoys me. I’ve always been a bit of a contrarian.”

Last year he headed for Bordeaux’s Right Bank, land of St.-
Emilion, Pomerol, and lesser-known appellations such as Fronsac
and Cotes de Castillon. He picked 11 chateaux whose wines don’t
have to be aged for years.

Johnnes invited me to a tasting, as five of the proprietors
told their stories to some young sommeliers.

In the private dining room at Restaurant Daniel, where
carpet, chairs and walls are in soothing shades of brown, the
“somms” nodded as Johnnes ticked off their complaints about
Bordeaux.

Too Expensive

“The Bordelais have always sort of pissed me off,”
Johnnes said. “I can’t open most of the top chateaux wines at
home, they’re too expensive. The famous names are more like
commodities for auction than wines with a sense of place.
There’s a disconnect between drinking and collecting.”

The less-grand chateau owners, who’d just arrived from
France, were not wearing designer suits or ties.

“The classed growths are like a black hole, they suck all
the attention,” lamented Pascal Collotte of Chateau Jean Faux.
I liked his smoky, fruity, slightly herbaceous 2007 Bordeaux
Superieur, an appellation given to wines made from selected
vineyard plots and older vines.

I also enjoyed smooth, savory 2005 Chateau Robin, a merlot-cabernet franc blend, from the Castillon Cotes de Bordeaux
appellation, 10 minutes from St.-Emilion, a source of many
excellent buys. Other favorites were the deliciously ripe,
velvety 2007 Chateau Beausejour from Montagne Saint-Emilion
(which I rated number 1) and juicy intense 2005 Chateau de la
Huste from Fronsac.

Lower Price

Madrigale, who admits he likes “soulful handmade
Bordeaux,” liked a few of the wines and plans to put those on
his list. Most cost less than $30 retail, but a widely held
conviction that good Bordeaux is expensive works against them.

“Customers think if they order a less expensive Bordeaux
it’s going to suck,” Jason Wagner, 31, of L’Atelier de Joel
Robuchon at the Four Seasons, said on the phone a few days
later. “They feel they’ll get more bang for their buck in
Piemonte or Tuscany.” He finds value in second labels of big
name Bordeaux.

Ralph Sands, Bordeaux buyer for the Bay Area’s K & L Wine
Merchants, said: “Bordeaux is no longer where new drinkers
start. That’s a major shift.” The rapid escalation of prices
for first and 2nd growths “have cast a huge shadow of
negativity over all of Bordeaux. Younger people go elsewhere. It
kills me.” When they try inexpensive Bordeaux at the store’s
monthly Bordeaux tastings, “they think they’re great,” he
said.

At New York City’s Sherry-Lehmann, President Chris Adams
says their Bordeaux master classes are packed with drinkers
under 35, anxious to learn and taste.

I’ll admit that when the high 2009 futures prices were
released I experienced greater sticker shock than usual and
became a Bordeaux basher myself -- but only for a few weeks. I
just had to look for other good chateaux, and it’s surprising
how many there are.

(Elin McCoy writes on wine and spirits for Muse, the arts
and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed
are her own.)